This summer has been emotional. I have two friends going through some very tough medical struggles and it’s hard to know how to help. Mostly to assuage my own helpless anxiety and to communicate some love, I take to the needles.

I knitted premie hats in three sizes and some wee wee socks for one of these friends with colorful sock yarn I had leftover in my stash. I forgot to take a better camera photo before I handed them off, so here is a phone pic before they were finished finished. I made the hats top down, starting with an I-cord. I cast on 3 stitches and made the I-cord until it looked long enough, then I increased by k1f&b every stitch for two rounds, with a plain knit round in between. When I had 12 stitches I then did k1, kf&b for the next round, then k2, kf&b for the next round, then k3, kf&b and so on until I had the number of stitches I wanted. Between each increase round I did a round of plain knitting. The top hat did not have such formulaic increases, and I was more organized about it for the following two hats.

For my other friend, I’m making some socks. She’s been in the hospital a lot lately and those places are often really cold. I gave her a pair of my hand knit socks, but she has much more petite feet than me, so I thought she should have some that fit her better.

These are (yet another–I love this pattern) pair of Hermione’s Everyday Socks. The yarn is Dream in Color Smooshy with Cashmere in Blue Fish. They will be super soft and warm. These are only 56 stitches instead of my usual 64, so it feels like they will fly by.

The knits are soothing and putting some love and warmth toward these friends feels like something I can do.